Endnote 23 – The Battleground

Recently published radiocarbon dates from the current Tel Aviv University excavations at Megiddo (which Israel Finkelstein co-directs) have now virtually confirmed this datum. Three samples of carbonized olive wood recovered from Stratum VI (their Level K-4) have produced calibrated date ranges of 1112–1102 B.C.E. (at 10 percent confidence) and 1062–1006 B.C.E. (at 90 percent confidence). See I. Finkelstein, “Bible Archaeology or Archaeology of Palestine in the Iron Age?” p. 170; and I. Carmi and D. Segal, “Radiocarbon Dates,” in I. Finkelstein, D. Ussishkin and B. Halpern, eds., Megiddo III; The 1992–1996 Seasons (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv Univ. Press, 2000), pp. 502–503. Since it is conceivable, however, that these wood fragments might have been in circulation for a considerable period of time after they were first cut from a tree, this radiocarbon evidence can only suggest a general date for the destruction of Stratum VI that falls toward the end of the 11th century, or even later, in the tenth century.